Background

Climate change is already profoundly impacting the conditions for resource availability and agricultural activities. Over the last decade, the country has experienced several extreme events, such as droughts and major floods, along with the cumulative effects caused by increased mean temperature and the uneven distribution of precipitation throughout the year, which have had negative consequences on the country's economy, and its population wellbeing and health. Severe droughts are recurring more frequently, causing significant economic losses. The increasing scope and intensity of extreme events have also resulted in increased frequencies of high-risk situations. By 2050, an increase of 2–3ºC in the average temperature, an additional 32 days that exceed the current maximum temperature by 10%, and another 12 days with zero precipitation are projected.

The Government sees the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process as key to achieving the adaptation objectives outlined in its 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy of the Republic of Moldova and its 2020 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), as well as the continued mainstreaming of climate change considerations into its policies and budgeting processes. Therefore, the proposed project supports the Republic of Moldova's Government in advancing the second cycle of its National Adaptation Planning process (known as NAP-2). The outcomes of the NAP-2 national adaptation planning processes are:

• Outcome 1: To strengthen and operationalize the national steering mechanism for climate change adaptation (CCA);
• Outcome 2: To improve the long-term capacity on planning and implementation of adaptation actions through CCA technologies;
• Outcome 3: To improve the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation through the increased alignment of national development priorities in the priority sectors (forestry, health, energy, and transport).

The project will contribute to UNDAF, 2018-2022 outcome #3 (The people of Moldova, especially the most vulnerable, benefit from enhanced environmental governance, energy security, sustainable management of natural resources, climate, and disaster-resilient development). Additionally, the project will contribute to the UNDP Country Programme Output 3.3 (National and sub-national governments have improved capacities to integrate resilience to climate change and disasters into development plans and practices to reduce population's vulnerability). Other than that, the project will contribute to the National Development Strategy "Moldova 2030" by ensuring resilience to climate change by reducing risks related to climate change and by facilitating adaptation in six priority sectors - agriculture, water resources, health, forestry, energy, and transport.

The preliminary work under the first cycle of the NAP (known as NAP-1) supported developing a NAP as a process, conceptualizing and developing its elements, including the national steering mechanism, and laid down the groundwork towards long-term adaptation planning. Despite the progress, significant gaps remain in integrating climate change considerations into many of the national priority sectors' development policies and their associated budget priorities. National appropriations for CCA remain limited.

The NAP-2 goals will be achieved within two parallel implementation tracks. The first track implemented by UNDP expands and deepens the national approach developed under the NAP-1 and strengthens synergies both vertically, at different levels of the governance, and horizontally, between the sectors affected by climate change to reduce duplication of efforts, pool scarce resources for efficient use, and ensure a coherent and comprehensive approach to the integration of CCA responses into development planning. In contrast, the second track will focus on adaptation in the agriculture sector and will be concurrently implemented under FAO's auspices.

The National Designated Authority has coordinated with the UNDP and the FAO country offices to ensure the complementarity and congruency of the activities and exchange, as appropriate. By its very nature, the NAP-2 will facilitate the integration of CCA into existing strategies, policies, and programs and establish a strong foundation for the integration of methods, tools, and information systems in day-to-day planning activities to inform decision-makers on the climate risks effectively and to enable the informed formulation of resilient projects and financing strategies.

Climate change already has far-reaching impacts on infrastructure and can put their operation and reliability partially at risk. This trend is likely to accelerate in the coming decades. The severity of climate impacts on infrastructures will vary according to individual locations and their geophysical risk exposure, the existing adaptive capacity and resilience, and the level of regional economic development. Long- and medium-term climatic trends (e.g., increasing average temperatures, modified rainfall patterns) and an inherently rising frequency of extreme weather events impact differently from site to site. Therefore, adapting infrastructure usually requires a complex, site-based analysis of different trends and impact patterns.

When revising existing or building new structures, technical standards are used in every phase during the lifetime cycle of an infrastructure. Standards can apply during the planning phase, the design phase, the construction phase, and the maintenance phase. Thus, standards have an important impact on the resilience of products, processes, and construction. However, in the context of the current climate challenges related to long freeze-thaw cycles, torrential rainfall, long periods of heat and extremely high temperatures in summer caused by global warming, updating norms and standards for infrastructure assets in transport and construction sectors became an imperative.

In this context, the UNDP Moldova is seeking to recruit an international consultant to verify the suitability of the EU harmonized codes for infrastructure assets and structures in the Transport and Construction sectors to the expected future hydro-meteorological parameters in Moldova and to provide recommendations on upgrading mentioned documents by mainstreaming climate change considerations.

Duties and Responsibilities

This assignment's main objective is to ensure climate resilience of the infrastructure assets in the Republic of Moldova, by considering the expected future hydro-meteorological parameters into the design and construction of technical and infrastructure assets for the transport and construction sectors.

Summary of key functions:

The consultant(s) will work in close cooperation with the Project pool of consultants and Team Leaders. The specific tasks are presented below:

• Liaise with national stakeholders, and guide national experts on the scope of the current assignment;
• Familiarize with expected future hydro-meteorological parameters and associated climate risks in the Republic of Moldova;
• Review local construction standards (codes, regulations, technical norms, etc.) for at-risk infrastructure and structure assets in the Transport and Construction sectors;
• Provide an overview of EU harmonized codes for infrastructure assets and structures in the Transport and Construction sectors to the expected future hydro-meteorological parameters;
• Assess strengths, weaknesses, gaps of local construction standards against EU harmonized codes for infrastructure assets and structures in the Transport and Construction sectors;
• Develop recommendations on the alignment of legal framework and technical regulations in the transport and construction sectors to the European technical regulatory framework for increasing the resilience of the sectors;
• Develop a detailed Roadmap for regulations/standards update, including a prioritization of documents to be updated, based on vulnerability to climate change and necessity to adapt;
• Assess human and financial resources required for alignment of legal framework and technical regulations in the transport and construction sectors to the European technical regulatory framework;
• Conduct at least one workshop for presenting the best practices on climate resilient infrastructure and the results;
• Integrate the recommendations/comments received during the consultation workshops in the Final Report.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Competencies

Academic Qualification:

• University degree in construction, /transport /environmental sciences, or other fields relevant to the assignment.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience with EU technical regulatory framework (e.g., construction, transport codes/norms/standards);
• Demonstrated experience in integration of climate change aspects into normative documents for transport and construction sectors;
• Previous Experience in developing/implementing technical regulatory framework in Europe and/or Eastern Europe.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated experience and knowledge in review and elaboration of normative documents in construction and/or transport sectors;
• Familiarity with reports and guidance documents prepared by international organizations on mainstreaming climate change adaptation considerations in construction codes and standards;
• Knowledge of international climate-related political frameworks, especially of the EU framework;
• Demonstrates excellent organizational skills and a proven ability for multi-disciplinary analysis.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English is required for this assignment; knowledge of Romanian or Russian will be an advantage.

Required Skills and Experience

Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

• University degree in construction, /transport /environmental sciences, or other fields relevant to the assignment;
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience with EU technical regulatory framework (e.g., construction, transport codes/norms/standards).

The short-listed individual consultants will be further evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight – 60% (300 pts);

* Financial Criteria weight – 40% (200 pts).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 210 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Winning candidate

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

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DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following required documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability, including financial offer, according to Annex 2;
2. CV, including information about experience in similar assignments;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment

Incomplete applications shall not be considered.

For supporting documents (Terms of Reference and Procurement Notice and Offeror's Letter, including Financial Offer template) please visit https://sc.undp.md/current_jobs3/ or https://sc.undp.md/jobdetails2/2264/

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